Fundraisers often need to broker relationships with people more affluent, older, or more senior than them, as well as with people who are more vulnerable. Sometimes this can lead to challenging situations. This session is about navigating this landscape, building your confidence, ensuring your safety, and helping you to handle challenging situations if and when they arise.

In this interactive session, we will explore some of the most challenging reputational issues in the higher education sector today, and build practical toolkits for managing these issues with alumni and supporters. We’ll get under the skin of some of the most frequent criticisms levelled at our institutions, from ‘woke students’ to ‘social engineering’, ‘rewriting history’ and ‘money-hungry recruitment’, and we’ll then explore how Advancement professionals can use their unique position to shift damaging narratives whilst maintaining and driving forward valuable relationships.

Legacies are a hugely emotive subject and talking about money and death can be difficult. This session debunks that thinking and will leave you knowing that this is a normal and vital conversation to have with your donors (and perhaps one you should have at home too!). You will learn tips and techniques for talking about this most taboo of subjects and discover the tools and rules for helping a donor achieve incredible things with their legacy.

Campaigns have become increasingly familiar in the fundraising world over the last decade, with many establishing monetary goals that quite simply boggle the mind. This session will help you understand how and why fundraising campaigns to achieve clear desired outcomes for society can play such a critical role in the advancement strategies of educational institutions. Antony, Margaret and Fiona will share their thoughts and first-hand experiences on campaigns and will invite delegates to explore the pros and cons of a campaign approach to fundraising as well as the building blocks to ensure success, many of which will draw from sessions earlier in the week.

Ethics are fundamental to human endeavours, enabling personal and professional growth. An ethical compass provides individuals with purpose and authenticity. An ethical practice also ensures professionalism in the field of fundraising and promotes philanthropy by increasing trust and public confidence. This session will help us reflect on the significance of purpose and authenticity in fundraising, and how ethics shapes the fundraising profession. We will also examine various scenarios where taking an ethical stance is necessary to uphold institutional purpose and authenticity.

The CASE-Ross data shows that typically many of the biggest gifts come from trusts & foundations. This session shows how to access the big bucks!

If you count your team in fractions, this session is for you. We will discuss how to plan strategically, prioritise your activities and manage the expectations of senior leadership in developing your master plan. On the way, we will share tips and tricks to make the most of a small budget and an even smaller headcount.

So much of philanthropy claims to be planned, guided by theory of solicitation cycles and wealth ratings. However, we all know that luck so often plays an important role! This elective invites you to be curious; to revel in the unpredictability of humans and to lean into the opportunities for chance that our sector has in abundance. How can your fundraising success be improved by learning to see opportunities in the unexpected and how can you change the way you work to become ‘luckier’?!